Bonifacius stood in the front, shield and sword at the ready.

JohnWillStab and XxFoxlyxX stood behind him.

In the back, ♛, the group’s healer adjusted her skills since she is not typically known for healing.

“Bonifacius: Are thou prepared, friends?”

They stood in a long, twisting hall that looked warped by more than just the shifting soil.

Tiles were torn from the ground and puddles of black ooze bubbled around every corner.

Only moments earlier, the group entered the large stone gate that was uncovered in the abandoned dig site, located in Northeast Grimwood.

Nothing except the tools and wooden platforms remained of the miners and archaeologists that worked tirelessly to find this crypt.

Large pillars stood symmetrically against the walls at two-meter intervals.

Everything was lit by torches that somehow never burned out.

“XxFoxlyxX: Yep.” He nodded.

“JohnWillStab: I think so!”

♛ shrugged.

“♛: Sure.”

Bonifacius nodded.

“Bonifacius: Good, let us make haste!”

The group marched forward in the diamond-shaped formation until the black slime began to rise up from its puddles.

“Bonifacius: Here come the foes!” he exclaimed.

Like a thousand frog tongues, the black slime shot out everywhere, snatching up pieces of the shattered tiles making up the floor and building itself a set of armour and a blade.

From between the cracks of the makeshift armour writhed black, oily tendrils.

Bonifacius used his charge ability, closing the distance between himself and the monster.

It lifted its blade ready to cleave Bonifacius’ skull in half only to be blocked by his shield.

Suddenly, Bonifacius was enveloped in green light as flower sprouted from the ground, ♛ just cast a healing spell onto him.

JohnWillStab began sprinting up to the creature only to be blocked by the sudden appearance of another one.

“JohnWillStab: S#*T!”

JohnWillStab slashed at the creature, dealing little damage.

The daggers he was using struggled to penetrate the thick, stone plates.

Wisps of purple light manifested around the group as the oily monster turned its attention towards Bonifacius who used [Aura of Intimidation] to generate more threat.

XxFoxlyxX moved in to the creature, placing a piece of paper on its back.

It looked like a painting of a mosaic, resembling a red dragon.

“XxFoxlyxX: Get back!” he called as JohnWillStab was knocked back by the small blast that shattered the monster’s armour.

Instead of the armoured pillar of tendrils, it now looked like a collapsing tower of ooze that slowly collected its armour off the ground.

Sensing his opportunity, JohnWillStab ran his dagger through the creature, when his blade struck as small red orb within its body it dissolved, turning to a puddle of bubbling ooze once again.

Seeing John’s health dipping into the three-quarters mark, ♛ cast a weak healing spell onto him.

JohnWillStab erupted into green light as a few butterfly particles flew out from god knows where.

“JohnWillStab: Thanks!”

♛ nodded.

John set his eyes on the monster attacking Bonifacius only to see that it was already cut in half by Bonifacius’ sword.

“Bonifacius: It would seem this dungeon is not beyond our capacity to complete!” he explained confidently.

XxFoxlyxX nodded.

“XxFoxlyxX: Yeah.”

He was looting one of the creatures, it dropped an inexpensive oil as well as some shattered stone shards.

“Bonifacius: We should keep moving, there are four bosses to defeat in this dungeon!”

“Bonifacius: The arch-lich of nightmare,”

“Bonifacius: The arch-lich of poison,”

“Bonifacius: The great bone serpent,”

“Bonifacius: And the arch-arch-lich of lichdom.”

“XxFoxlyxX: One of these is not like the other…” he remarked.

♛ nodded.

“♛: I’ve been here once a few years back,” she explained.

“Bonifacius: I know the bosses of every dungeon; however, I have never been here in person before!” he laughed.

“XxFoxlyxX: I’ve never been into dungeon-delving, but I’ve done a fair few raids… I’ve never been here though.”

JohnWillStab breathed a sigh.

“JohnWillStab: Needles to say I’m seeing the place for the first time…”

“♛: No need to worry! I can be our guide!” ♛ offered.

John and Foxly felt a shiver run down their spines as Bonifacius nodded.

“Bonifacius: Fantastic! Our victory is all but assured!”

♛ grinned madly.

“That’s it! The third boss, the skele-snake!”

“There’s a bug in the game that makes it so you can’t leave if any of the players die during the fight…”

“And then they’ll have nobody to turn to… since you can’t respawn at a nearest town in a dungeon!”

She burst into laughter as Bonifacius and the group moved further into the dungeon.

“Just you bastards wait…”

The group travelled through the long hallway, they fought off dozens of black slime monsters on the way to the first boss.

The strategy was simple, Bonifacius attacks the enemies and makes sure they keep attacking him while John and Foxly try and take them out.

♛ healed the group as needed.

And so, over the course of almost fifteen minutes, the group reached the large chamber leading to the first boss.

Unlike the hallway up until now, this room was lit with blood-red flames.

“Lithium…” ♛ thought, unimpressed by the pseudo magic lights.

A large table stood covered in a nightmarish banquet of rotting food, corpses, raw flesh and patches of writhing insects.

A tall, inhuman creature stood against the wall with the steel gates that would open upon the defeat of the boss.

Everything except its face was obscured by layers upon layers of colourful rags.

Its legs were a collection of mis-matched spider legs, some thick some thin, some hairy some sticky.

Whatever was underneath its robes twitched with unspeakable acts of depravity.

Its doll-like porcelain face looked like an uncomfortable mix between a frown and a smile, perhaps it was a mask.

Nothing but an endless black void filled both of its eye-holes.

“JohnWillStab: …”

“JohnWillStab: What the f#*k is that?!” he demanded.

As the group stepped into the room, the doors behind them shut closed.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: WELCOME!”

“Bonifacius: Prepare yourselves, friends!”

“JohnWillStab: Right!”

“XxFoxlyxX: Yeah,”

The lich twitched with excitement.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: Welcome, welcome, welcome!”

It’s mask-like face twisted and turned with a clicking noise.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: You are MOST WELCOME!”

It laughed wildly as from the corners of the room bubbled up more black slime, it trickled down from inside the small cracks in the walls.

Unlike before, the things that appeared weren’t shapeless elementals, these were manifestations of much more horrific things.

Long, hairy centipedes tapped their way from the black puddles and into the room.

Large, rabid dogs covered in blistering orbs of black ooze climbed out next, they looked starved, their ribs stuck out like chattering teeth.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: Now then… let the feast begin!” he cried as the monsters lunged at Bonifacius.

The boss himself sat down, motionless, it looked at the party fight off its minions hungerly.

For every creature they killed, two more would take their place.

Bonifacius used [Colossus Stomp] to slay no less than a dozen monsters, when they hit the ground, they turned back into the black slime which slithered its way back to the puddles where it reformed into more ghoulish monsters.

JohnWillStab was surrounded by a group of three dogs, they gnawed at his legs, John tried to kick them away to no avail.

Bonifacius used [Threatening Roar] to gain the attention of the canines which attacked JohnWillStab.

Seeing that John was no longer being attacked, ♛ cast a health-over-time spell called [Druidic Regeneration] onto him and turned her sights to their tank.

Slowly, JohnWillStab’s health increased while ♛ focused on healing Bonifacius who was now being attacked by everything except the still idle boss.

“THIS IS SO CHAOTIC!” John thought, running up to one of the dogs that previously attacked him.

He slashed at it, successfully killing it and causing it to break down into its liquid form.

“Bonifacius: XxFoxlyxX, is thy AOE prepared yet?” he called out, totally surrounded.

“XxFoxlyxX: yeah!”

He threw a card down into the centre of the room, it looked like a mosaic of a whale.

Moments later, an orb of water appeared in the air above the card.

Tendrils of water snatched the dogs and insects into the orb as it began to spin faster and faster.

Its surface first becoming a foamy white, then a bloody pink.

As the bubble burst the pieces of flesh and black slime fell to the ground twitching.

“XxFoxlyxX: There goes my mana…” he remarked, his character was gasping for air.

“Bonifacius: Fear not, we shall handle the boss ourselves!” he exclaimed confidently.

As soon as he said that, the boss sprung into life.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: SPLENDID! Marvellous!”

Its face twitched with excitement as its body contracted and expanded rhythmically.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: Your fear makes for a fine marinate…”

It made a crackling, clicking, croaking noise as it charged into battle, smashing through its table towards Bonifacius.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: Gaze upon me, shield-user! Gaze into yourself and despair!”

Suddenly, Bonifacius was struck with a fear effect.

His hands began to trembled as he lost his ability to attack or even defend himself.

Thanks to a passive ability called [Heroic Valour] Bonifacius didn’t run aimlessly when stricken with fear; he simply stood there, frozen in place with terror.

“♛: I got you.”

A wave of violet particles rained down onto Bonifacius as his fears disappeared.

♛ cast a generic healer skill called [Dispel]; it had the ability to clear most negative effects as long as they were caused by magic.

In an instant, the debuff disappeared, allowing Bonifacius to smash his shield into the boss and push it back.

“Bonifacius: Many thanks!”

The boss stumbled back, it tried to use its spider legs to stabilize its stance only to be further pushed back by Bonifacius’ [Master Charge] ability.

The Boss was so focused on fighting Bonifacius, it never noticed JohnWillStab slowly slicing at it from the side.

That was the power of a tank’s aggro.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: None can escape my fear!” he exclaimed, as into the massive chamber poured clouds of black, putrid smoke.

♛ cast [Dispel] again to no avail.

Everyone within the room was overcome with a fear debuff.

John, Foxly and ♛ ran around in a fear-induced frenzy as Bonifacius remained still.

From the corners of the room appeared four spectres.

Hooded creatures that floated above the ground, in their hands, they each carried a different type of container, bottles, crates, bags and cages, each one wore a different colour cloak.

“OH SHIT! I FOGOT TO TELL THEM ABOUT THIS PART OF THE FIGHT!” ♛ remembered.

“Melthazar the Arch-Lich of Nightmares: Come, mortals! See the world through the eyes of the greatest coward!”

Before ♛ could finish typing her message, their screens became black for several seconds before fading in to a surreal view.